Sunday, April 30, 2006

Direction 1: What Do Cartoon Directors Do Anyway? Ask Bob and Tex

People have asked me many times what a cartoon director does. They understand what an animator does or a storyboard artist does, but it's sort of vague in most people's minds what a director's duties are, so I'm gonna help you out with a controlled experiment that happened at the Leon Schlesinger studio in 1942.This was the last year that Tex Avery worked at Looney Tunes. He left for MGM and went on to make his best cartoons. He had just spent the last 7 years or so at Warners directing some of the greatest talents in animation history.

He directed Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Bobe Cannon and Virgil Ross in 1935 to 1937 and later directed Bob McKimson and Rod Scribner - probably the two most skilled and talented animators at Warner Bros.This cartoon above, Aloha Hooey is the last Tex Avery cartoon to be released by Warner Bros. Scribner, McKimson, Virgil Ross and other top animators worked on the cartoon.Below is a great Rod Scribner scene from Aloha Hooey (watch the acting in it too!):After Tex left, Bob Clampett - who had been directing the youngest animation unit at Warners for the last 5 years got promoted to directing Tex' unit-the top unit at Warners.

Bob told me how exciting this was. He said he always had all these great ideas he wanted to try to animate in his cartoons, but his younger animators were not quite ready to do some of them-even though they were all really good and had already made many classics with Bob - including Daffy Doc, Porky In Egypt, Porky and Daffy, Porky's Party, Henpecked Duck and Polar Pals. These guys were all in their early 20s when they made this stuff!

So now that Bob was working with the top animators in the whole studio, he got to try some new things.Eatin' On The Cuff was made by Clampett shortly after Tex made Aloha Hooey. These cartoons were animated by the same people and both cartoons were one-shots so that's why this comparison makes a nice controlled experiment. It allows you to see what exactly the two different directors would with the same teams.

Watch the cartoons and see if you can tell what's different about the cartoons and that will help you understand what a director does.

The one other factor that's different about the 2 cartoons: Tex had been working with this crew for years and knew their abilities well. Bob was directing them for the first time.Here's some hints of things to look for:timingwild actionfacial expressionsgagsstagingLooney quotient

Aloha Hooey by Tex Avery 1942

Eatin' On The Cuff by Bob Clampett 1942

Both directors went on to evolve and create more and more inventive and funny cartoons for years, but these two pictures are particularly interesting to me historically.

By the way, Dave Mackay has a great site-that's where I get the dates and credits for all these cartoons-go check it out and see what everyone at Warner's was doing and when. You too can trace where new styles and ideas came from!

56 comments:

Wow, Those where great, especially Eating on the Cuff! I like the contrast of using a live action narrator, but as far as MAJOR differences taken by Bob Clampett in direction in contrast to Tex Avery's, I would have to say that the character animation looked FAR more exaggerated and controlled than in Tex Avery's. Although both looked amazing, there was definitely a leap in performance when bob took the rains. GREAT cartoons though!

I liked them both. I especially liked Eatin' on the cuff because of the craziness. I liked the other because of the two guys trying to get the girl. It is common to see that, but that one made it funny.

So a director adds color! ;) I liked em both, but I'll give the edge to Tex and Aloha Hooey on this one. The designs in that one are really fun, and the classic Tex gags are a riot. Especially the ending.

I always thought TA's comedy came from timing of gags and subtle actions. My favorite takes on TA's MGM shorts were always the small ones. Remember the tree that would always fall on Spike when he chopped it down? Spike's expression was more of a mild shock like, "WTF?". Clampett's take on a tree falling someone would be loud and spontaneous. That's how I see the two directors differently. I have to buy the screwball tapes again.

Both cartoons are great. Bob Clampett and Tex Avery are both my favorite directors from the golden age of animation (Clampett being my VERY favorite). Watching these cartoons back to back was interesting. The Avery cartoon was very good, but I was completely enchanted by that Clampett cartoon. I noticed first of all that Clampett uses the music better, and the timing is very good. He also uses more interesting camera angles. The characters are never the same size throughout the whole cartoon (one moment they're in a close-up shot, the next they're far away). The Clampett cartoon also seems to have more energy. You can tell that a younger person made that cartoon.But my favorite thing about the Clampett cartoons is how the characters look (especially when Rod Scribner draws them). The characters in the Scribner scenes are the most loosely drawn, exaggerated, cartoony characters ever! That's why I think Clampett directed his animators the best, because even though Scribner is my favorite animator, his work without Clampett wasn't as good. I think a good director makes a good animator even better.*whew*...Now I'm thirsty...Can I have a glass of meat?

"Remember the tree that would always fall on Spike when he chopped it down? Spike's expression was more of a mild shock like, "WTF?". Clampett's take on a tree falling someone would be loud and spontaneous."

Yeah I think that's a good observation on the difference between the two director's sense of timing humor, but Clampett was just a freak when it came to executing the animation of his gags. I mean look at the break out animations he uses, there the most memorable thing to me about cartoony animation from that time.

It's a little unfair to judge between these two because Aloha Hooey's sond is so out of sync it's ridiculous. Youtube is bad for that anyway, but this instance is atrocious.

I prefer Eatin' On The Cuff in this case. It does seem more together. Every part of the story plays out well. Aloha Hooey though is more like bits of other stories stitched together. At first, it has a seagull and a crow becoming fast buddies looking for chicks. Then, when they see one, they start competing for her attention. Then, near the end, a villainous gorilla tries to take the girl away. However, only the gooney crow saves her and therefore wins her affection. The seagull, for some reason just accepts this resolution and seems to have forgotten about their competition earlier.Didn't Bob Clampett take over the direction of Aloha Hooey when Tex left? That could account for the uneven story. Bob might have added his own personal touches that may have derailed the story a bit.

Maybe that's the main difference between the two. Eatin' On The Cuff is more pure because it had the same dirctor all the way through.

Well...If I was to be judged on my last day of work at any job, I don't think it would be fair to compare my work that day to that of the NEW guy! That being said I do think it's clear that Bob's cartoon is far more skillfully executed. And if these are all the same animators and resorces at use hear I'd have to say that maybe's Bob's fresh new direction did in fact inspire those tallented me to perform on a higher level. What amazing cartoons!

It's hard to really compare them with the Avery cartoons audio not synching up. But over all I like Clampetts better. It's so alive and chock full of great drawings. A lot of awesome expressions and acting. I need to own this cartoon at full resolution on DVD so I can watch it in slow motion and frame by frame. This is the first 'new' Looney Tune I've seen in 15 years. Tex's cartoon was still really funny and had it's moments expression and acting-wise, but lacked energy when compared to Bob's.

>>Didn't Bob Clampett take over the direction of Aloha Hooey when Tex left? That could account for the uneven story. Bob might have added his own personal touches that may have derailed the story a bit.<<

Let me see if I can follow this reasoning:The second cartoon is better.Therefore the guy who made the better cartoon must have went back and used his superior abilities to make the first cartoon not as good.

It's this kind of reasoning that separates our time period from the early 20th century.

Ok, I had to go back and look at these two cartoons again, still framing threw them and the whole nine yards...What I found was that Eating on the Edge was supperior in gags, camera angles, cuts, story, story telling, character personality, and character designs. The narration also added a nice touch as well, but that to me that isn't the bigger issue. Aloha Hooey had a weak opening, it didn't drag you in the same way that Eating on the Edge did with it's use of music and song. Also the background paintings were FAR superior in Clampett's cartoon and were fun and interesting, the backgrounds from Tex Avery's cartoon were bland and boring. They held no interest in camera angel, origionality of design, or lighting. Also as I still framed the Clampett cartoon and found that not only was his character animation superior, but he put use to far more squash and stretch in the characters as they zoomed from one shot to another, making the animation stand out and the cuts run far smoother than Avery's did. Avery used squash and strech of course, but he did not utilize it as cleverly or as creatively and instead seemed to depend on booring blur effects that although can be fun, they are not half as inspiring or creative as what Clampett was having his animators do. Avery was using alot of pose to pose animation which is also boring in comparison to Bob's form of break-out character acting and animation(I think John had a better term for it). The gags were great as well in Clapett's cartoon, and the best refence for that is the shot where the Old Widow Spider falls into the glass of wine. The bubbles lifting her hat up made for a far funnier and more appealing gag than the fire lighting sequence. Not to mention the breaking of the third wall, when the widow spider starts talking to the camera and again near the end when the moth confronts the narrator. These are all very cartoony, fun and superiorly executed techniques that I think made Bob's cartoon the better of the two cartoons. I could go on pointing things like this out but at this point I doubt any one's even reading this! lol Peace out! :p

Hey John,Is there a book anywhere about the art of Bob Clampett?? There's quite a few books about Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, but I'd love to get my greedy, sweaty hands on a book about Clampett. Someone needs to write one (with lots of pictures).

Know what else would be great...a book called The Art of Spumco! With lots of art, drawings, and candid photos of all the crazy big-shot cartoonists working in the studio. Damn, that would would be swell!

i vote for clampett... he got a chance to use better animators and took full advantage of them, tried some experimentation and still kept a cohesive story going. maybe tex was turning his attention toward his mgm plans at the time he was making this one... i think it's the weakest of the tex avery looney tunes i have seen the resolution and frame rate of the video may have clouded my judgement, but thanks a lot for sharing them with us in any kind of quality!

Timing (Music/Rhythm)The music in Tex's cartoon didn't seem to fluctuate too dramatically. There was music that would accompany Sammy Seagull (sailor music) and music that would accompany Cecil Crow (country music) but they didn't differ in tempo too drastically - the crow's music is slower than the seagull's, but the seagull's music wasn't too fast to begin with. Not much contrast. And then the music that accompanied the girl they were pursuing also had a slow, Hawaiian tempo. Also, there seemed to be only 3 or four themes that just kept repeating. The tempo really only seemed to speed up on the Scribner underwater scene when the fish attack his cigar.

The music in Clampett's cartoon was much less predictable. Sometimes we have the nice piano-jazz-song with vocals, but sometimes the score becomes fast&furious&orchestrated, sometimes we hear a couple notes of standards, and sometimes the music stops! Like when the widow spider hops out of the water and runs to the book. Basically, the music had more variation and more surprises in Clampett's. It would flip between nice jazzy piano, to furious&dramatic, to standards, to silence....and you can't really predict when the change will ocurr.

GagsI noticed that in Tex's cartoon, the gag is set up that Sammy Seagull will offer the girl a gift, and then Cecil Crow will try to out-do him, and Cecil Crow will end up getting himself into a mess. And this type of gag pretty much repeated throughout the cartoon.

In Clampett's, I couldn't predict what kind of gag would come next. First there would be a dialogue gag, like the piano player singing that the moth was on a "fabricated diet" - then there would be a visual gag, like the clothes being eaten by the moth and the remains on the hangers were funny (Fox-looks-like-Hitler-for-a-moment gag), and a lot of the gags were just character/animation gags. The entire scene of the widow spider putting on make-up and a wig to look like Veronica Lake is just hysterical! And it's the animation that makes it funny - the multiple arms while putting on the beauty products, the nose springing out and ruining the Veronica Lake impersonation, and the movement! When the spider runs up to the moth and then a moment later her clothes and wig follows - this is funny animation!

Boy, this is the longest comment I've ever written! Anyways, those are some of my observations.

Duck Dodgers has some great screen captures of It's A Grand Old Nag, check it out.I've seen Aloha Hooey dozens of times when I was a kid. Lotsa good gags, it's really kind of a cute cartoon, but some of the animation looked like Chuck Jones style. I'm not saying Chuck directed any sequences in this flick, but did some of Chuck's animators work on Avery's crew, too? Why do I remember a sequence of Sammy getting scared and running off when the Villain Gorilla appeared, then Cecil Crow becomes the Hero? I'll put that down to my imagination filling in for an imaginary edit for time ;0)I've never seen Eating On The Cuff til now, it's got quite a bit in common with Gruesome Twosome and The Hep Cat, doesn't it? Same cartoony quality, about a minute or two for the setup, the intense energy, the lively music, oh, and I love Mel Blanc's singing, I wish he made more records singing the songs of the day, he would have been quite a pop singer, not like Bing or Frankie of course! The Black Widow is a great character, best part of the cartoon, even though she is the villain, she's a fun villain and a funny looking villain, to boot.

I know the purpose of this post is to show what two directors did with the same group of animators but how do you think Bob would have directed Aloha Hooey? How would have it been better? Or merely different? I love the work Tex Avery and Bob Clampett (and Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin and Arthur Davis) equally, each one brought something different to the table. Bob has definitely a zany, frenetic attack towards his films, an intensity that is almost breathless in its approach. Tex is in another kind of surreal world and works at a speed that can be as intense but is more controlled, building up to a "how ridiculous can we get?" or "how can we top that?"(the epitomy of that being King Size Canary) whereas, with Bob Clampett, he makes it feel like he's about to lose control of the whole thing any second but never does, does he?

I enjoyed 'Eatin' on the Cuff' far more then the other. As mentioned 'Aloha Hooey''s story was all over the place and the gags a little predicatible. Even the voices seemed tired, Sammy sounded like a mix between Bugs and Popeye and Cecil sounded very similar to Goofy.Avery's cartoon just didn't have the energy, creative angling or plot to sustain my interest. On the flipside Clampet's cartoon was never predictible, had some hilarious gags and had an amazing aliveness to the animation.

Hey John, or anyone else, if you get the chance would you mind checking out my blog? I've been working on some cartoons, and for one in particular I've been incorporating things I learnt from your site. Here's the direct links:

The second cartoon is better.Therefore the guy who made the better cartoon must have went back and used his superior abilities to make the first cartoon not as good.

Whoa! Hold up! That's not what I said at all.

Eatin' On The Cuff is the superior toon because it is PURE Clampett. It's his vision all the way through. Aloha Hooey on the other hand was started by Tex Avery and finished by Bob Clampett. Maybe Bob didn't quite understand what Tex was doing with this story so he might have added some of his own touches which he thought was improving things which may have instead lost the story some of its lustre. This is of course speculation on my part. Maybe Tex and Bob shared notes about this cartoon before Tex left for MGM, maybe they didn't. But, finding that out would give us a better idea as to why the cartoon turned out like it did.

Oh, and also, saying that one of these cartoons is better than the other is in no way saying that one of the directors is better than the other. Both men had their share of masterpieces and turkeys. All were comparing here is how they handled these particular cartoons, not their entire careers.

aha I already thought that was the exact same voice!I loved seeing this, eating on the cuff is my favorite of the two by far. Way less predictable indeed, while the story was still straightforward and less confusing than the first one, that had a scrambled, unclear, too long set-up. And I just love the singing in the beginning, I'm a sucker for that.

btw you got me on a drawing spree again, I'm very happy about it since I was in a little bit of a rut. You're right, charicatures do help with getting out of that. (even though mine aren't too exaggerated yet, it does help me get less rusty)

Of course, "Eatin' on the Cuff" is the winner here.It is a screamingly funny cartoon, while the Avery's Wb efforts are always softer in impact than his MGM terrific shorts.

In the Clampett cartoon, a great attention is given to the facial expressions, while very little is given in the Avery cartoon.The gags are also faster and wilder in the Clampett short than in the Avery one.

I thought the Moth cartoon was a lot better, though the first one was very very solid. The moth one held my attention better. And the closeups of the characters faces and the way they all talked with so much life and bouncyness was great.

Are there any examples in Spumco work of how much a director changes something?

One aspect of the Clampett cartoons I’ve always loved was how the energy of the music matched the energy of his cartoons. Book Review and Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs are my all time favorites for both animation and music, especially near the end of Book Review with the animation of Daffy and Red Riding Hood frantically dancing to the fast pace of the Carolina song. Another great scene is in Coal Black when Prince Chawmin’ exits his limo and sings about So White being Dynamite. Suddenly there is a close up of his face and he makes a smile so big that it causes his monocle to fly off. When he does this, the orchestra starts blaring. I love it every time I watch it.

OK, so from these cartoons being so different, we can plainly see that the director is in charge of the cartoon, it is his vision. Even if they use the exact same writers and animators, the cartoon basically belongs to the director. If clampett had done aloha hooey the gags probably wouldn't have felt so strung together yet unrelated. Clampett's animations were utilized more wildly and way looser. Tex's were more conservative with flashes of craziness. Tex's cartoon was set up very quietly, with the soft hawwaian music and the seascape. John K talked about exposition earlier. Clampett set it up really fun with the piano player singing a fun song to explain things while gags happened. Tex's cartoon had one gag after another, but they felt unrelated. It wasn't like a story, it was a situation with gags. Clampett's gags came from what was happening to the characters in the story anyway. Example: when the spider's flew off and left her clothes behind and they flew back on her. It didn't have to happen, but it was a fun way to give a little extra in terms of gags and storytelling. Like, without gags, eating on the cuff would have worked but aloha wouldn't have. Clampett's animation is so funny it's like a visual gag, while Tex's only did what it had to do which was link unrelated gags to each other.

Does this make sense? I'm terrible at these things, I always feel like I'm stating the obvious. I'm like the John Madden of cartoon commentary.

If Clampett had directed "Aloha Hooey," he might have increased the contrast between Sammy Seagull and Cecil Crow by making the seagull move&talk&act faster (while still remaining smooth and cool like the Durante cat in "A Gruesome Twosome") - and then when we cut to the crow, he will seem even MORE slow and country-hick-ish.

Quote:I watched your clips of Rabbit Hood. I almost posted but then I thought better of it...that's the cartoon I always point to when I say that Chuck Jones invented "Illustrated Radio".

Maybe I'll do a post about it and then link to you-but I'm not crazy about that cartoon as a cartoon. It has some funny gags, but they are mostly verbal. The animation doesn't add anything.

An interesting point, seeing as how one of Chuck's beefs with certain other cartoons was that they were merely "Illustrated Radio!" On the other hand, Chuck had copped to the fact that some of his cartoons were talk-fests while others were 100% pantomime (e.g. Road Runner).

I agree that there are lots of funny verbal gags. The "London Bridge" sequence hinges on action, though, and was always a favourite gag.

Hey John, I don't know if one even exists anymore, but I'd really love to see some ruff uncleaned key frames from some of these great animatiors. Not necessarily THESE animations in particular, but a ruff animation frame or two from Mc Kimson, Scribner, Chuck Jones or the likes would be just amazingly informative for someone like me! I'd especially like to see how ruff they get when they come up with those super exaggerated frames we always see(or DON'T see so too speak). ;) Anyhow, just some wishful thinking!Thanks!

I think the whole cartoon Rabbit Hood is great. Not at the top of my list but Chuck's stuff is always great to me, but I think the verbal humor does add more to it than the actual animation. 1948/1949 was such a strong release season to me at Warners.

Do leave a comment, I like to know people are reading my stuff. Wait'll you see my review of how UPA ruined animation that's coming this week, John.

Crazy Cruise has a couple scenes that sure look like Clampett handed them out-the natives, and the rabbits.

Didn't see that post. Those are definitley done by Clampett. You can tell the difference between the pacing of those gags (not to mention they get grotesque!) between Avery's. I'm pretty sure Clampett handled the tobacco bug too.

Hell, the whole thing with Bugs (which has always been my all-time favorite cameo, along Ward Kimball's random use of Donald Duck in one of his TV shows) was lifted from Africa Squeaks!

^Whoah, I was wondering where they went. 1 minute difference. Delete my last post, here's what I wrote minus the theories.

>>Jorge that was a brilliant set of observations! You should be a cartoon reviewer. Now pull up your pants! Your best friend John

Thanks, buddy! I was afraid it'd be lost among the other great observations. As for the pants... Well I gotta look cool, yo!

>>By the way, the big reason I actually care about any of this is because I've had in my mind an idea to get a biographical movie made about Tex Avery's life. Such a tribute is long overdue really. I personally would like to know as much as possible about what really happened at Termite Terrace and wherever else Tex worked so that all figures in his life can be more accurately portrayed. I'd hate to have Ruth Clampett or Linda Jones pop out of the woodwork shouting "That's not what my father did. I'm suing!!"

I thought an animated film drama about Termite Terrace in general would be cool, but extremely tricky. I doubt ANYONE could make it right.

Both that and Eating on the Cuff are excellent choices of contrast. I'm still just learning who animated what, but it seems like Rod Scribner's scenes were more controlled under Avery's watch than Clampett's. Under Clampett, he was able to do all sorts of wacky things, as seen with the spider (I'm presuming). The moth, and possibly the bee, were pure McKimson; they use a lot of the same poses that would later be utilized in McKimson's cartoons.

I think the main contrast in Avery's and Clampett's shorts were the ways they used storytelling in connection with the action and staging. Avery was more concentrated on the story, and used minor pieces of close-ups and camera movements to convey the action. Clampett was all about the action; He uses close-ups, camera panning, and other types of staging to a full advantage for the story.

Also, this contrast in action and energy may have a lot to do with how Avery's cartoon clocked in at two minutes longer than Clampett's cartoon.